Mr. Robert Watt:

Thank you for the question. I have set out in the report for the Taoiseach last year, and I have reiterated some of it in response to Deputy O'Callaghan, the sequence of events. There was a conversation in August 2021, which involved Martin Fraser and Dr. Holohan, that Dr. Holohan had expressed an interest in leaving the service and taking up a different role, perhaps in the public service - that role had not been at that stage scoped out or developed. Martin spoke to me about it and I spoke to Dr. Holohan separately. I expressed my support for him and, like anybody who comes, if you are working with somebody or somebody reports to you, and they say to you that they are leaving a job, you say “Okay, fair enough. I am happy to support you and wish you all the best.” Clearly, Martin and I were motivated by great respect for Dr. Holohan and all he had done, because he did an incredible job during the pandemic, and not only during the pandemic but during his career previously as CMO, so we had great respect for him. We wanted to support him and we thought that it was appropriate that he be supported. He wanted to leave the service and then he wanted to do a different role. We thought there would be great benefits to the State to retain his expertise within the public system. Obviously, he no longer wanted to stay within the Department of Health but he wanted to explore other opportunities. As I said, those conversations were put on hold when the Omicron variant hit in autumn of 2021, and then the conversation resumed again in February when we had more time to reflect upon that. Dr. Holohan and Martin had conversations, and Dr. Holohan spoke to various universities and scoped out the role, and Trinity College developed this chair or professorship, and so on. That is how it evolved.